Awami League candidate Khair Abdullah wins Barishal city polls

Awami League (AL) mayoral candidate, Abul Khair Abdullah, has emerged victorious in Barishal City Corporation polls, beating Islami Andolon Bangladesh's candidate Syed Faizul Karim by a huge margin of 53,407 votes.  

Returning officer Md Humayun Kabir announced the unofficial results at Barishal Shilpakola academy on Monday night.

In the elections, Khair Abdullah secured 87,752 votes in 126 centres, more than twice his nearest rival, IAB's Syed Faizul Karim, at 34,345 votes.

Barishal city has 276,298 voters; of them 137,489 are male and 138,809 female. 

CCTV cameras were installed at 894 polling booths in 30 wards. Seven candidates vied for mayoral post while 116 contested for councillor posts and 42 for the reserved women councillors.   

The voting of this city corporation elections started at 8:00 am and continued till 4:00 pm. The election commission (EC) claimed the election was fair except for a few sporadic incidents.  

Meanwhile, Syed Faizul Karim and some of his followers came under attack in the afternoon.    

Media cell of IAB also raised allegations of attack and harassment of its activists, obstruction of entry of its polling agents in the polling centers, eviction of agents from polling centers, obstruction of voters and forcible casting of votes.

Leaders and activists of IAB staged protests wielding sticks in different parts of the city condemning the assault on the mayoral candidate.